Answering Questions

Tuesday January 8th, 2019

Today in class we had to answer 3 questions on our blog which means that I won't have to write it when I get home so that is a bonus. We did some research that way we can answer the questions and here are my answers below.

There are four basic Vedic texts in use by Hindus. Give a brief description of each, including how many hymns are in each.

1. Rig-veda: The Rig-veda is known for the knowledge of the hymns of praise for recitation. The rig-veda is most important of the four because it is the oldest. It is composed of 1,028 hymns. Rig-veda hymns are asking the Gods for for help and benefits like health, wealth and longlong life. It also comes from the foundation of yoga and many of the teachings are still taught and used in yoga today.
2. Sama-veda: The Sama-veda is known for the knowledge of the melodies which is used  for chanting. The Sama-Veda is an ancient scriptures and is basically the same as the previous one but they put the words to music. Almost all of the verses from the previous veda are put in their veda and are all sung. Sama- Veda represents the mind and heaven. It is composed of 1,549 hymns.
3. Yajur-veda: The Yajur veda is known for the knowledge of the sacrificial formulas and was used for liturgy. This scripture is devoted to the worship of the gods and the word yajus comes for the meaning of worship to sacrifice. This veda is divided into two parts which is the white part and that consists of prayers and specific instructions for devotional sacrifices and the black part deals with instructions for sacrificial rituals. It is composed of 730 hymns.
4. Atharva-veda: The Artharva-veda is known for the knowledge of the magic formulas and is named group of priests. This one involves issues like the healing of illnesses, prolonging life, black magic and the rituals for removing maladies and anxieties. It is not concerned with the sacred rituals but addresses the daily problems of verdict people. They seek cure from herbs, hailing a lover or partner or world peace and the nature of good and evil. This is composed of 730 hymns.

Why do you think Martin Luther objected to indulgences?

• Indulgence is the way to reduce the amount of punishment that one person has to undergo based on sins. It can reduce the temporal punishment for sin after death, in the process called purification. The pope and church began asking for money and the people sins would be forgotten. Martin Luther was against indulgence because people should not have to go through the punishment and that the pope didn't have the right to pardon with God. Martin Luther ended up breaking away from Catholic Church, creating protestant detonation of the Luthern teachings and creating his own teachings.

Describe the details of the Hajj, and include a photo or video of a Hajj in your blog.

• Muslims make the trip to the Mecca at the end of the year and all muslims are expected to make at least one trip there in their life. It is in Saudi Arabia and about 1 million muslims make the trip in a year. It is the second largest gathering of muslims around the world and hajj means to attend a journey.All adult muslims are expected to make the trip once in their lifetime unless they are physically or financially unstable. Hajj packages from the US cost more then $5,000. All in all this is what I have for the assignment in class today.

All in all today's class went pretty good and we just worked on this during the whole class which was pretty nice.